The Mormon church was one of the leading forces behind California's short-lived ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8.The church says it stands by its support for "traditional marriage" and hopes a higher court validates its belief that marriage is between a man and woman.

Like, we stand by it until we get a prophecy telling us not to, like we stood by polygamy. Which is more "traditional" than not, by the way. Not to mention that no one is telling the Mormon Church, or any other church, that they have to allow same-sex marriage. (Just like no one is forcing, say, Catholic priests to marry divorced people, Baptists, or Hindus in their churches.) They can keep on being as "traditional" as they want. They just want to force their notions of "tradition" on the rest of the state. Errrrr, country. World.

In the papers filed Tuesday, Utah argues that children are best raised by a mother and father in a good relationship.

"On average children navigate developmental stages more easily, perform better academically, have fewer emotional disorders and become better functioning adults when reared in that environment," it says.

Let's not get sidetracked by whether that's even true or not. (Is it "a mother and father", an opposite-sex couple who are married, or just two parents?) Let's allow it to be true for this discussion. Now. Does Utah then plan to take kids away from single parents or squabbling couples? They plan to prohibit divorce when there are kids, mandating counseling to maintain (or create) that "good relationship"? They plan to mandate remarriage as soon as possible for widows and widowers?

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About Me

I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...

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You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language.

After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door...

It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined.
Mark Morford